House Republicans delay recess over border dispute

WASHINGTON — House Republicans postponed their August recess in an effort to salvage a border funding bill that collapsed Thursday under the weight of conservative opposition.

"We're trying to work through this, and I actually think we will still get there," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. Republicans were working late into Thursday evening and were scheduled to meet again Friday morning to see whether they could put together a legislative package that could clear the chamber on the strength of Republican votes.

The exercise is largely political because whatever Republicans ultimately pass will face Senate opposition and a White House veto threat. However, lawmakers are wary of heading home for a month-long break in an election year without casting a vote on how to address the thousands of undocumented minors along the southwest U.S. border.

"(The House Republican) Conference was essentially unanimous that it needs to stay. It did not want to go home," Cole said. "If we have to work longer through the weekend, I think there is a genuine desire to do that."

The House was scheduled to vote Thursday on a $659 million emergency spending bill to address the border crisis. The proposal also would have dispatched National Guard troops to the border and changed a 2008 law to make it easier to return children home to Central America.

Speaker of the House John Boehner, R-Ohio, leaves a closed-door Republican strategy session on the immigration crisis on Thursday after last-minute maneuvering failed to lock down conservative support.(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)

But Republicans failed to muster the support needed to pass either proposal, and the measures were pulled from the floor.

In a joint statement, GOP leaders said they would continue to work toward a solution to the flood of unaccompanied children detained at the U.S./Mexico border, and they put the onus on President Obama to act on his own.

"There are numerous steps the president can and should be taking right now, without the need for congressional action, to secure our borders and ensure these children are returned swiftly and safely to their countries," read the statement.

GOP leaders went to great lengths to secure passage by allowing a separate vote on a measure that would block Obama from any further executive action to stop the deportation of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

The concession was believed to be necessary to get enough conservative Republicans to vote for the border funding bill because House Democrats broadly opposed it. The measure mirrored a proposal supported by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who had met with House Republicans privately to encourage them to support it.

Senate Democrats failed to move forward with a competing measure that supplies $2.7 billion in emergency border funding with no change in immigration policies. The proposal could not overcome a procedural hurdle. The Senate was set to adjourn late Thursday, making it all but certain the Congress would not complete the border funding bill until September.

Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, blasted Congress for its inaction: "Congress and the president have a duty to address our border security issues without further delay. Congress should not go into recess until the job is completed."

Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson had warned Congress that key agencies will begin to run out of money by mid-August if Congress did not send additional funds. However, lawmakers said the agencies can shift money within their accounts to cover the shortfall until Congress returns in September to try again at reaching a deal.

Immigration advocates blamed Thursday's failure to reach a deal on House Republicans for their efforts to tack on broad policy changes to the emergency funding request. They said the House's insistence on ending the White House program to stop deportations of undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children and to change the 2008 law doomed what should have been an easy funding request to help overworked Border Patrol agents and Health and Human Services officials trying to find housing for the children.

"It's a sad day," said Kevin Appleby, director of migration policy for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. "This is a defining moment in the national debate."

House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said Republicans were trying to make changes in U.S. law and to Obama's deportation policies because they believe administration policies have left Central American families with the impression that if their children can get to the U.S., they can stay. "It is ultimately up to President Obama to end this crisis by reversing his policies that created it," he said.